Football: Coaches Square Off Again

Football: Coaches Square Off Again

Football: Coaches Square Off Again

Doug Loughridge

Today’s Van Buren-Alma game is not the first time Pointers coach Brooks Coatney and Airedales coach Doug Loughridge have faced off against each other in a local county rivalry.

In 2009 and 2010, they were the head coaches in the Franklin County battle between Ozark and Charleston. Coatney was Ozark’s head coach while Loughridge was at Charleston, his alma mater. The Tigers won both games. The 2009 game, like the Alma-Van Buren game for the last 23 seasons, was a season-opener.

“We’ve been through this (season-opening rivalry game) before. It’s good that we have been through this experience and we know how to prepare our kids for the week,” Loughridge said.

One thing Loughridge must overcome, though, is the fact most first-year coaches in this series open with a loss.

The last head coach to win his first game in the Alma-Van Buren series was Pointers head coach Dennis Pendergrass in 1997. Van Buren’s 14-13 victory was the only win of the season while Alma went on to win the Class AAA title.

Alma coach Frank Vines is the only Airedales coach in the post-World War II era to win his first game in the series. In 1976, Vines and the Airedales nipped the Pointers 7-6.

The first coach to win his debut game in the series was Clair Bates. His Pointers blanked Alma 33-0 early in the 1942 season.

In recent years, Alma has dominated the series thanks to a 9-3-1 record against the Pointers since 2000. Van Buren’s last win was in 2010. Before this current Airedales run, Van Buren had a 9-1-1 record in 1989-99.